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US markets fluctuated between small gains and losses, while the Nasdaq pared some gains. The afternoon trade shows the DOW down 68 points, the SP 500 backing off the 2100 resistance, falling fractionally (0.3%) and WTI oil futures turned negative in North American trade, currently in the low45's.

$NYA200R chart below is the percentage of stocks above the 200 DMA and is always a good statistic to follow. It can depict a trend of declining equities which is always troubling, especially when it drops below 60% - 55%. Following a major market correction, the conditions for safe re-entry are when:
a) Daily $OEXA200R rises above 65%
Secondary Bullish Indicators:
a) RSI is POSITIVE (above 50)
b) Slow STO is POSITIVE (black line above red line)
c) MACD is POSITIVE (black line above red line)

What Is Moving the Markets

(Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow fluctuated between small gains and losses, while the Nasdaq pared some gains on Thursday, as the impact of strong labor market data was offset by a drop in oil prices.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. private payrolls increased more than expected in June as small businesses ramped up hiring, and fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, suggesting a rebound in job growth after May's paltry gains.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is examining Facebook Inc over its transfer of various rights associated with its worldwide business to a holding company in Ireland, according to court papers.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG will pay an additional $86 million in penalties to California over its emissions scandal, on top of a settlement of about $15 billion that the automaker reached with U.S. officials last week, state Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement on Thursday.

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Danone said on Thursday it would double the size of its U.S. business by buying organic foods producer WhiteWave Foods Co for $10.4 billion in its largest acquisition since 2007.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co is stepping up efforts to conserve cash, cut costs in its supply chain and trim inventory of parts in its factories, telling vendors it will take longer to pay bills, Boeing and aerospace industry executives said.

(Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc reported a better-than-expected profit for the second quarter on Thursday, buoyed by lower raw material costs and higher demand for Frito-Lay snacks and new beverages in North America, lifting shares to a record in early trading.

Let's for a second imagine a world without nuclear energy. That's a tough one but let's try. No nuclear bombs, of course, no Chernobyl and Fukushima, no worries about Iran and North Korea. A wonderful world, maybe?

Probably not, because without nuclear energy we would have burned millions more tons of coal and billions more barrels of oil. This would have brought about climate change of such proportions that what we have today would have seemed negligible.

Nuclear energy and uranium, which feeds it, are controversial enough even without any actual accident happening. Radioactivity is dangerous. Nobody is arguing against it. When an accident does take place, the public backlash is understandably huge. What many opponents of uranium forget to mention, however, are the benefits of nuclear energy and the fact that the statistical probability of serious accidents is pretty low. They focus on the "What if?" and neglect the other side of the coin. But let's try to see both sides of the issue.

The positive side of nuclear energy definitely deserves more attention than it's currently getting. Uranium-fueled power is obscenely greener than fossil fuels. It's also cheaper and, perhaps surprisingly for many, it is actually lower in carbon emissions than solar and biomass. This means that the construction of a nuclear plant, including materials used and the work itself plus the operation of the plant over its lifecycle, produces fewer greenhouse gases than the construction ...

WTI Crude just puked to 2-month lows with a $44 handle, down 5% on the day (and down almost 7% from the day's highs)...

Bonds and Bullion are bid as stocks slide...

As we detailed earelier, following last night's larger-than-expected API-reported biggest drawdown in 13 months, DOE reported a mere 2.2mm draw (well below API's 6.7mm draw and expectations of a 2.5mm draw). Perhaps even bigger was the very small 122k draw in gasoline stocks compared to API's 3.6mm draw and WTI is tumbling in reaction. However, crude production plunged by 2.25% last week - the biggest drop since Sept 2013. Crude prices have crashed to a $45 handle - near 2 month lows.

API

Crude -6.736mm (-2.5mm exp)

Cushing +80k

Gasoline -3.603mm

Distillates -2.305mm

DOE

Crude -2.223mm (-2.5mm exp)

Cushing -82k

Gasoline -122k

Distillates -1.57mm

The breakdown by region, in which it is notable that PADD 3 crude imports rose to 3.86m b/d last wk, highest since Dec. 11 as total U.S. imports of crude 8363k b/d vs 7555k.

Two years after Paul Krugman sat down with Abe to tell him how to run monetary (and to a lesser extent fiscal) policy, Abenomics lies crushed in a steaming pile of discredited Keynesian economics, with the "deflation monster" once again ruling the land, wages have failed to sustain any material move higher, the economy finds itself in yet another pre-recessionary slump, and most importantly, the Nikkei has plunged 25% from recent highs as a result of the surge in the Yen driven by the complete collapse in BOJ credibility - which is now a ward of the G-7 and is not allowed to make any independent monetary decisions without US Treasury preapproval - which has pushed Japan's currency back to levels higher than when Krugman made his visit.

So what is Japan to do facing what may be an economic dead-end? Why even more of the same, and just to make sure Japan does not deviate from the monetary course of righteousness, this time not Krugman but the godfather of everything that is wrong with modern monetary policy, Ben Bernanke, will make sure of it.

But first, to give the impression that Japan's decisionmaking process is still "independent", officials from the Ministry of Finance, Financial Services Agency and the Bank of Japan will meet Friday at 9:30 a.m. to exchange views including on how the government should respond to the yen's appreciation, Reuters reports.

The last time they met was on June 25, shortly after Britain voted to leave the European Union, a decision that jolted financial markets and boosted investors' demand for the safe-haven yen. Since then the USDJPY has plunged by 600 pips, and was straddling 100, a key psychological level for the BOJ. In other words, the meeting was a failure.

Unlike fellow Americans who often have no recourse for their travel nightmares, our particular flight headache could end with compensation of as much as 600 euros ($663) if it can be determined that our airline indeed was responsible.

U.S. stocks surrender early gains to trade in negative territory on Thursday as crude oil pivoted south with most investors taking a wait-and-see attitude ahead of the critical official jobs report Friday.

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